As the wireless communication technology evolves and the demand for wireless service increases, a mobile phone usually plays a role as a hotspot for a wireless local area network (WLAN), i.e., the mobile phone delivers data packets between a cellular network and the WLAN. Specifically, the mobile phone may include an application processor, a cellular modem and a Wi-Fi module. In a downlink direction, for example, the mobile phone may receive the data packets from a cellular base station via the cellular modem, and transmit the data packets towards device(s) within the WLAN via the Wi-Fi module. In addition, the application processor is mainly utilized for executing application programs (or software) of the mobile phone.
In the prior art, when the mobile functions as the hotspot, the application processor of the mobile phone needs to deliver the data packets between the cellular modem and the Wi-Fi module. In other words, even though the application processor temporarily has no application program to execute, the processor still has to keep awake just for delivering the data packets in between, which consumes a lot of unnecessary power.
Therefore, it is necessary to improve the prior art.